Growing Pains: Part 6﻿

On July 20, 2018, a lightning strike ignited what became known as the Bacon Rind Fire 20 miles south of Big Sky. By the time snow and rain in early October effectively put out the fire, it had burned 5,232 acres of timber similar to that surrounding Big Sky. OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO

Big
Sky’s wildfire heritage

By Bay Stephens EBS LOCAL EDITOR

This is the sixth installment of “Growing Pains,” an ongoing series centered on Big Sky’s growth, the challenges and potential opportunities it presents. Click here to read Part 5 of this series and search “Growing Pains” on this website to read prior installments.

BIG
SKY – Around noon on May 12, a property manager using a torch to eliminate
weeds and grasses up beyond the Beaver Creek Road gate started a wildfire.
Gusty winds caused the flames to spread over a total of seven acres of hilly,
sagebrush-covered terrain before the Big Sky, Gallatin Gateway and Yellowstone Club
fire departments, along with the U.S. Forest Service were able to suppress the
blaze.

With
fresh snowmelt, green flora and frequent rainstorms, May is early for wildfires
to start in Montana. Yet this instance shows how, when you add more people to
an area like Big Sky, the risk of wildfire increases.

“Anytime
you build more houses in an area that’s prone to wildfire, you’re adding more
risk because you add that human factor in,” said BSFD Deputy Fire Chief Dustin Tetrault.

Adapted to wildfire

Wildfires
are a natural occurrence in the American West, and the forests surrounding Big
Sky are not excluded. Forests in the western U.S. are actually adapted to
wildfires, and depend on fire for ecological health.

Before
European settlers moved west, wildfires took place regularly but on smaller
scales than today, leaving the forests a patchwork of areas that burned at
different times. Some native tribes even used fire purposely, understanding its
function in sustaining the natural world.

However,
after a series of wildfires around the turn of the 20th century destroyed more
homes than the states had ever seen, the U.S. Forest Service adopted a wildfire
exclusion policy in 1913 that involved preventing and suppressing wildfire as
much as possible, according to Jack Cohen, a leading scholar on wildfire
ignition research. This policy of putting out fires as quickly as possible was
predominant for the following four decades before it began recognizing fire as
a historical and ecological factor in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

On May 12, a property manager was using a torch to eliminate weeds and grasses up Beaver Creek Road when gusty winds caused the flame to spread over a total of seven acres of hilly, sagebrush-covered terrain before fire crews were able to extinguish the blaze. PHOTO BY JOSEPH T. O’CONNOR

“[That
period] has produced fuel accumulations and arrangements that have enhanced the
potential for the extensive areas of high-intensity wildland fires experienced
in recent years,” Cohen writes in his article, “The Wildland-Urban Interface
Problem,” published in Forest History Today.

In
forests such as those around Big Sky, that have not burned in recent memory,
the overcrowding of trees and increased dead and down timber due to pine beetle
kill can ignite and set off a major conflagration, according to the Madison
County Community Wildfire Protection Plan. In certain areas, such a stand
replacement fire can consume thousands of acres.

Last
year’s Bacon Rind and Wigwam fires, which torched 5,232 and 4,087 acres,
respectively, took place in areas very similar to and not far from Big Sky.
Both burned in the forest canopy, constituting a partial-stand replacement.

As
more people live in and visit Big Sky, the risk of ignition increases. While the
surrounding forest is historically adapted to wildfire, the question becomes whether
or not Big Sky’s residents and subdivisions are so adapted.

Tetrault
says there’s a range of grades he’d give developments throughout Big Sky, with
some subdivisions scoring As and Bs and others, Fs. Overall, he gives Big Sky’s
wildfire preparedness a C average.

“What
we’ve done really well is that we have enough space that we haven’t got down to
building zero-lot lines [developments] or these dense cluster houses,” Tetrault
said. “We’ve kept our risk isolated so that if we get a big fire and we get one
structure that burns down, more than likely that may be an isolated incident
because there are not a lot of structures around it.”

He
added that he fears denser subdivisions in the future could increase risk.
Although building practices have improved, homes are still being constructed
with flammable siding and roofing in Big Sky, and many older houses are more
likely to go up in flames, he said.

With
upwards of 2,500 structures yet to be built in Big Sky, Tetrault and BSFD are
pushing hard for these to be built to withstand fire on their own.

“When
it comes down to it, when you get these large-scale fires like we’ve seen in
California these last couple years, the firefighters aren’t fighting fire,” he
said. “Life safety is No. 1 for us so we’re getting people out. We can’t take
the time to fight [multiple] structure fires when lives are at stake. Our big
focus is going to be getting people out of there, not the structures.”

Homes
and subdivisions built and designed to withstand wildfire will mitigate the
financial, social, economic and cultural impacts the community faces, Tetrault
said.

Who foots the bill of
wildfire?

Although
the costs of fire suppression largely come out of state and federal coffers,
the burden of recovery from the destruction to property in the wake of a
wildfire falls primarily on the local community.

“When
you’re looking at the full range of wildfire cost, not just the short-term
suppression costs, but also long term costs related to tourism revenue,
property values, infrastructure repair, roadside maintenance, the vast majority
of that cost is borne by the local community,” said Headwaters Economics Research
and Policy Analyst Kimiko Barrett, who is the project lead for the nonprofit
thinktank’s wildfire research.

“Although
a community doesn’t pay for immediate suppression of a wildfire, they are going
to pay for long-term rehabilitation,” Barrett added.

Unlike
many peer communities that stretch into wildfire-prone landscapes, such as
Boulder, Colorado, Big Sky is not able to require homeowners to conduct regular
wildfire mitigation on their property, though Big Sky has more wildfire
exposure than most communities in the West.

Such
stipulations would require maintaining defensible space around a home by
managing vegetation around one’s property, as well as mandate that building
materials anticipate a wildfire event.

What
sets Big Sky apart is its high percentage of those owning second homes and
amenity owners who rent their homes for services such as VRBO, according to
Barrett.

“You
have a lot of absentee homeowners and when that comes to wildfires and
mitigation that can be a very significant challenge,” Barrett said.

Tetrault
added that guests staying in a home on the short-term rental market also
complicate evacuation scenarios as they may not know where to go in such an
instance. Evacuation also brings in the conundrum of mass egress from Big Sky
in an emergency situation.

One way in, one way out

Big
Sky’s routes of egress are limited, being either U.S. Highway 191 or Jack Creek
Road, which has a private, gated section before becoming a narrow, public dirt road
through the Jack Creek drainage. It can’t accommodate commercial vehicles and
is also prone to spring landslides.

“As
far as an evacuation operation [on Jack Creek Road], if we had [Lone Mountain
Trail] compromised, could we do it? Yes,” Tatrault said. “Would it take a long
time? Absolutely. … Taking into account that wildfires can move up to 6 mph and
every second counts, it would be extremely difficult to get everyone out in
time.”

In
an emergency the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office would oversee an evacuation,
according to BSFD Fire Chief William Farhat, adding that the capacity the roads
could handle is a widely recognized concern.

“Our
road system is fragile,” said Farhat, pointing to issues that could derail
heavily traveled Highway 191.

“A
car accident can block the road for hours, a rockslide could block it for days,
a washout could block it for weeks,” Farhat said. Although a washout hasn’t
happened in years, he cited how a rockslide on Colorado’s I-70 corridor in
Glenwood Canyon severely impacted travel.

“There
are ways to improve transportation but they’re extraordinarily expensive,”
Farhat said. “… In Montana, we don’t have the access to that [type of funding].
If you look at Big Sky, the solutions are not evident.”

Preparedness

Despite
the risks of wildfire and egress in the growing community, public safety
professionals in Gallatin and Madison counties have community wildfire
protection and pre-disaster mitigation plans for Big Sky.

The
Big Sky Fire Department has been proactive in the face of Big Sky’s staggering
growth. Tetrault was hired specifically for community outreach; his full title
is actually Deputy Chief of Community Risk Management. He is building an
all-encompassing risk-reduction plan for Big Sky.

His
goal is to form Big Sky into a fire-adapted community. This not only involves encouraging
that new structures and subdivisions are designed with wildfire in mind, but
also working with property owners’ existing structures to optimize the
survivability of their homes.

On
June 11 and 12, the BSFD will be conducting fuel-mitigation work at area
properties, collecting debris, chipping it and hauling it away for people. Tetrault
will also be meeting with homeowners and making recommendations as to how they
can better prepare their homes for wildfires.

Creating
defensible space around structures also allows them and other fire-suppression
professionals to more efficiently and effectively suppress fire in the case of
a large-scale wildfire.

“We
need to get out of that mindset that, ‘It’s not going to happen to us,’”
Tetrault said.

In
light of Big Sky’s limited egress capacity, Patrick Lonergan, Chief of
Emergency Management for Gallatin County, urges residents to be prepared for an
emergency event, either to be self-sufficient in case they have to stay put, or
prepared with a plan that enables them to evacuate as soon as county officials
advise them to leave.

According
to Lonergan, most civilian injuries in wildfires across the nation occur when
people don’t leave when they’re told, instead deciding to weather the storm,
but then change their mind when they realize the threat is more serious than
they expected. When they finally do leave, smoke obscures the road or trees
block it, often resulting in vehicle accidents that can impede firefighting
teams.

“We
want them to leave while it’s safe so they don’t end up in a situation where
it’s not safe to leave and they don’t feel comfortable staying put,” Lonergan
said.

Another
challenge in an emergency situation is notifying everyone about what is
happening and the best way to stay safe, Lonergan said, which is why Gallatin
County has a community notification system. He encourages residents in Big Sky
to register at alerts.readygallatin.com, which allows Lonergan’s team to send
out targeted messages to people in specific locations.

Wildfire
must be recognized as a reality of life in Big Sky, according to Kimiko Barrett
of Headwater Economics.

“A
wildfire is inevitable. It’s coming. It’s just a matter of when,” Barrett said.
“[Big Sky needs] to prepare now by managing their home and property and
building to a higher wildfire-resistant standard.”

Visit readygallatin.com/mitigation to view the final draft of the updated Gallatin County Hazard Mitigation Plan and to provide feedback by the June 19 deadline.